In one conventional arrangement, a virtualized environment includes a host in which a virtual machine monitor (VMM) and multiple virtual machines (VM) are resident. The host includes one or more physical resources that are presented to a VM by the VMM as a virtual function associated with a virtual device. For example, the VMM provides the VM with a virtual device identification value that the VM uses to load a corresponding device driver that accesses physical registers associated with the identification to utilize a virtual function provided by the virtual device identified by the identification.
In this conventional arrangement, attempting to upgrade these one or more physical resources with one or more new physical resources can have undesirable consequences. For example, in this arrangement, unless the VM is able to load and execute a device driver that has been specifically designed to use the one or more new physical resources, the VM typically will be unable to use the one or more new physical resources.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.